Norristown drug ring kingpin testifies against former customer' in day one of testimony

COURTHOUSE — The major kingpin of a Norristown drug ring walked over to his former “customer” and pointed him out to a jury in Montgomery County Court Thursday.

Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Cordero, of Chain Street, Norristown, wearing navy blue prison garb, was called as a commonwealth witness in one of the biggest Norristown cocaine trafficking cases in recent history.

Cordero told the court that the defendant, Jorge Goya-Hildalgo, of Philadelphia, helped him push nearly half a kilogram of cocaine a week to buyers in Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Philadelphia counties in November and December 2011.

“I made sometimes $10,000 a week,” Cordero testified.

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“I used to get quarter pounds, bring it to Montgomery County and split it up into smaller grams.”

Cordero was arrested in December 2011, pleaded guilty to his crimes and is now serving a sentence he described as “nearly half his life” behind bars.

“I made so many bad decisions in my life and the only way to fix it is to tell the truth. This is the first step,” said Cordero.

Hildalgo and two other men are on trial for their alleged roles in the drug ring — Angel Rios-Gonzazles of Lebanon, Pa. and David Meade of Philadelphia. They are three out of a total of 24 co-defendants who are either jailed, awaiting trial or have gone missing.

An undercover detective, not identified for that reason, testified in court that in December 2011, detectives used wiretaps to record more than 800 phone calls between the defendants and others, which were later transcribed and translated from Spanish to English.

Elizabeth Chegezy, a commonwealth witness and freelance Spanish translator and interpreter, testified that she received 115 files — in the form of recorded phone conversations — to review and edit.

Chegezy said that many times there are regional varieties and differing interpretations of words from Spanish to English, and often times a certain term can have a number of different meanings.

Defense attorney Edward Rideout argued that it was not until Chegezy was commissioned by the commonwealth to review and edit the files that she made changes to parts of the transcription. In one example, the word, “basket” was found on the original transcript. It was later changed by Chegezy to “they’re high,” which Rideout said alters the meaning and intent behind the entire phone conversation.

Testimony is expected to spill into Friday and next week before Common Pleas Judge Gary S. Silow.